A JURY heard how a man was left seriously injured after his leg was crushed by a fork lift truck at his place of work in Cricklewood.
Mitesh Patel had his right leg amputated from below the knee following the incident on 19 June 2008 at Tile Depot Trading Limited in Cricklewood Broadway Retail Park.
Hassan Mohammed of Kilburn was store manager and has been charged with failing in the duty of an employee while at work to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and other persons who may be affected by his acts or admissions at work.
The twelve-strong jury at Wood Green Crown Court heard how Mr Mohammed, who pleaded not guilty, was trained to use a fork lift truck but Mr Patel was not.
Mr Patel was employed by the company to advise customers on the shop floor and to stock the warehouse.
Despite having no training and not holding a license, the court was shown CCTV footage of Mr Patel operating the machinery.
He told the court Mr Mohammed was serving customers on a busy shop floor and had instructed him to use the fork lift to move tiles from the yard into the warehouse.
Mr Patel told the court “the keys were always left in the fork lift truck” and he had been shown by Mr Mohammed how to operate the machine’s levers earlier that day.
He said: “I’d just started the job and was keen on making an impression” and admitted he “didn’t recognise the hazard at that time.”
After using the machine to take some of the tiles into the warehouse Mr Patel said he got off the machine and went outside to get a drink of water from his car.
When he returned Anthony Phillips who was employed as a sales assistant was sat in the fork lift truck.
As Mr Phillips was not authorised to use the machine Mr Patel said he told his colleague “a couple of times to get off”.
However, Mr Patel said he eventually told Mr Phillips how to use the levers because he thought it would mean “he would get off sooner.”
He explained how Mr Phillips “lost control” of the machine and it reversed into him, trapping his leg between the truck and a wall.
Mr Phillips said “driving equipment without knowing how to use it is obviously dangerous” but said he “wasn’t thinking about that at that time.”
In a statement Mr Mohammed had said he had “given clear verbal instructions” for unauthorised persons not to use the machinery.
Robert Gilbert and Christopher Sale were directors for the company at the time of the incident.
Both have pleaded guilty to contravening health and safety regulations and will be sentenced at the end of the trial which should be concluded this Friday.
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